There exists a great variety of incubators for prematurely born infants. These provide a controlled temperature and humidity inside the incubator, simulating the optimum conditions required by the infant. Generally means are provided for providing good visibility of the interior, and means are also provided for an easy access to the interior. Conventional incubators are generally divided into two basic types:
a. conventional incubators for prematurely born infants which are healthy;
b. incubators of the intensive care type intended for problematic cases of ill infants, which are generally provided with IR-radiation heating means.
Various means of heating are resorted to such as the circulation of heated humidified air, or the use of radiant heat. It is one of the main problems to maintain a uniform temperature in the interior, and not to disturb this drastically when the incubator is opened to provide access to its interior by a physician or nurse, applying some treatment to the infant.
The need to have two distinct types of incubators, and the problem of providing an essentially constant temperature and degree of humidity in the interior of the incubator are overcome to a large extent by the novel design of the incubator of the present invention, which provides some novel features of great practical utility.